Protobasidiomyceten Untersuchungen aus Brasilien

Abstract

THE present work forms the eighth part of Dr. Schimper's “Botanischen Mittheilungen aus den Tropen.” The author is well known for his mycological researches, having previously contributed two parts to the above-named communications—“The Fungus-Gardens of some South American Ants,” and “Brazilian Fungus-Flowers.” To Elias Fries is due the credit of having first reduced the previous chaotic condition of mycology to an intelligent and scientific standpoint; even much beyond what could have been expected, considering that naked eye characters, or at most when aided by a pocket lens, were only available. Berkeley and Tulasne followed, and, aided by the microscope, added greatly to our knowledge of the minute structure and affinities of the various groups of fungi, a knowledge which has been in some instances more readily utilised than acknowledged by their successors. Later, De Bary's classical work indicated clearly what could be done, by means of pure cultures, towards the elucidation of the life-history of species, and a knowledge of true affinities; a method which is being developed at the present day by Brefeld, to the extent that the last-named author has presented us with his idea of the gradual evolution of the fungi, from their algal ancestors to the highly differentiated, asexual condition, represented by the members of the Basidiomycetes. As usual in classifications based on progressive morphological development, connecting links between groups that the evidence at hand suggest as forming a natural sequence, are not always forthcoming. The purport of the work under consideration is to make known a series of such connecting links or primitive types of the great group of fungi known as the Basidiomycetes; and if the author's conclusions prove to be well founded, the neighbourhood of Blumenau, in the province of Santa Catharinea, Brazil, where the material was collected, must be looked upon as a veritable garden of prototypes of the higher fungi. Protobasidiomyceten. Untersuchungen ans Brasilien. Von Alfred Möller. Pp. xiv + 179. (Jena: Fischer, 1895.)